Higher-order and distributed synergistic functional interactions encode information gain in goal-directed learning

Etienne Combrisson, Ruggero Basanisi, Matteo Neri, Guillaume Auzias, Giovanni Petri, Daniele Marinazzo, Stefano Panzeri and Andrea Brovelli ()
Additional contact information
Etienne Combrisson: CNRS
Ruggero Basanisi: CNRS
Matteo Neri: CNRS
Guillaume Auzias: CNRS
Giovanni Petri: London
Daniele Marinazzo: Faculty of Psychological and Educational Sciences
Stefano Panzeri: University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE)
Andrea Brovelli: CNRS

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-19

Abstract: Abstract Goal-directed learning arises from distributed neural circuits including the prefrontal, posterior parietal and temporal cortices. However, the role of cortico-cortical functional interactions remains unclear. To address this question, we integrated information dynamics analysis with magnetoencephalography to investigate the encoding of learning signals through neural interactions. Our findings revealed that information gain (the reduction in uncertainty about the causal relationship between actions and outcomes) is represented over the visual, parietal, lateral prefrontal and ventromedial/orbital prefrontal cortices. Cortico-cortical interactions encoded information gain synergistically at the level of pairwise and higher-order relations, such as triplets and quadruplets. Higher-order synergistic interactions were characterized by long-range relationships centered in the ventromedial and orbitofrontal cortices, which served as key receivers in the broadcast of information gain across cortical circuits. Overall, this study provides evidence that information gain is encoded through synergistic and higher-order functional interactions and is broadcast to prefrontal reward circuits.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-62507-1 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-62507-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62507-1

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().